The Amazon logo story

As one of the giants in the retail business, it goes without saying that Amazon has quickly carved out a place within influential retail brands. Founded in 1994 in Seattle, Washington, the company was originally called Cadabra, a decision that was quickly changed after noticing it resembled the word “cadaver”.

In the beginning, Amazon just sold books online, which allowed them to grow very quickly. They generated $20,000 in revenue a week in the first two months of business. Since their days of only selling books, Amazon has become one of the biggest players in the field of online commerce – as we know it today.

Since the beginning, Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, has called on Turner Duckworth to create his logo. Initially, the logo was the letter ‘‘A’’ with a shape of a river inside. This version was replaced in 1997 by a more refined version, with ‘‘amazon.com” accompanied by the slogan “Earth’s Biggest Bookstore’’ in a black font with serif. The font of the logo as we know it today, along with the yellow line, was adopted in 1998. The yellow line started out curving down and now it curves up.

That yellow arrow is more than just a decorative swoosh. The Amazon logo was created to represent the message that it sells everything from A to Z (the arrow connects the two letters) and also represents the smile that customers would experience by shopping on the Amazon.com Web site (the arrow becomes a smile).